Sweet Anthem: My stash & a mini review

I'm gonna show you guys the awesome perfume collection I have from Sweet Anthem. Sweet Anthem is an artisan perfumery run by Meredith Tucker out of Seattle, Washington. Her fragrances are 100% vegan, and come in either oil or EDP (alcohol-based) spray form. Most of my collection is oils- I've been collecting these for some time now- check out this little stash:

It's really cool seeing the packaging changes she's made over time. The big bottle on the left is Rebecca (my namesake, yay!) from the Autumn '09 collection- it came with the tag tied on with twine, but I took it and ran it through my Xyron sticker maker to make a stick-on label :) The other big bottle is Esther, which I got at the end of January this year after using up almost all of the sample I'd purchased in like 2 weeks' time (I seriously LOVE Esther). You can see how in just a couple months' time the packaging changed, in my opinion, for the better. The tie-on tags were cute but not permanent- I very much prefer the pre-stuck on labels. The sample bottles are all different ages- those really haven't changed much, and that's fine by me.

I'm not going to go into details on each of these scents, at least not today, but feel free to ask if you have any questions about any of the scents you see and I'll do my best to give you my impressions of them. My favorites from above are Esther and Madeline, and of course, Rebecca- I actually have 3 bottles of that LE fragrance stashed away, so I'm set with it for awhile. Oh and Elliot, which is supposed to be for guys but I think it's an awesome women's fragrance :D

Today I got in the mail another package from Miss Meredith, well ahead of the super-long delivery time I had anticipated- her shop announcement, at the time of my purchase, warned of a 30-35 day wait period. I don't mind waiting for an order, so long as I have advance notification, and Sweet Anthem's goods are well worth that kind of wait.

This time I got some EDP sprays, which are a new(ish) addition to her line. They're the cutest little 2mL sprayers (I have these same bottles in my shop, too, I LOVE them) which come with colored labels on them, nestled safely inside the awesomest little slider boxes, tied up with custom-printed "Sweet Anthem" ribbon. The boxes were accompanied by 2 different business cards, placed inside a glassine envelope and sealed with a sticker.

I got: Emily, Corrin, Madeline, and one of the new Spring 2010 fragrances, Lizie. They are all awesome (I already knew Madeline was great but I wanted to try her in an EDP).

• Emily smells like cookies, but grown-up cookies, probably thanks to the sandalwood note. She may be next on my list of scents to buy in a larger bottle, I'm not sure yet. 
•  There's Corrin, which is more of a "perfumey" scent- I detect mainly rose petals and tea after awhile, but the wonderful thing about Sweet Anthem's perfumes is the way they change during wear. At first, Corrin is a sweet berry-like scent and with wear she evolves into something much more, I don't know, mature, I suppose. It's a gorgeous feminine scent for sure. 
• Madeline is a bright, cheery scent that always makes me happy- I love this one. It's citrusy and winey but tempered with woods and a touch of smoke... she's playful but sort of sexy, too. Madeline's a must-try if you're buying from Sweet Anthem, if you ask me.
• Lastly, there's Lizie. I was SO excited when I saw Meredith tweeting about her new spring line and the use of tomato leaf. I LOVE the smell of tomato plants, and tomatoes in general, really. I knew I'd have to try this perfume, and today, I got to. It's herbaceous and green and it blooms into something a bit flowery after awhile- it doesn't smell like tomatoes or tomato plants, which I guess is a good thing, though honestly that wouldn't have bothered me :) As with ALL of Sweet Anthem's perfumes (or the ones I've sniffed, anyway) Lizie has so much more to her than one or two notes and the way she smells when you first apply is a bit different from the way she smells an hour or two later.

One thing I feel I should mention is the fact that I am super-sensitive to perfumes based in alcohol. I can't usually wear them- most give me headaches or burn my skin or both. These 4, in my limited wearing of them today, hasn't hurt my head at all, but my skin is a little irritated where they were applied. I knew that this could happen going into this purchase, and I bought them anyway- I was hoping that I wouldn't react to whatever it is that gets put into perfumer's alcohol that my skin just cannot stand. Plus, the price on the little EDP sprays is lower than it is on the oil samples, so I looked at this as a way to test a few scents without having to spend as much money. Would I buy the EDPs again? Yes- but only as a means to test out new fragrances on the cheap. When I go to buy Emily and Madeline (and Lizie and Corrin...lol) in large bottles, I'll be ordering them in roll-on bottles of perfume oil. Now, I don't want to scare anyone away from trying these, because they're really great. If you can walk into Nordstrom's (or Macy's or whatever department store is near you) and wear any of the mass-produced designer perfumes you find on the counter, these EDPs from Sweet Anthem will be perfectly fine for you. I just have stupidly sensitive skin, and if you do too, then you'll want to start by ordering her perfumes in oils- click here for a link to her oil samples which have, incidentally, never irritated my skin. I'll either fashion myself a perfume locket to use to wear these 4 EDPs with, or I'll just spray them on my clothing instead of directly on my skin. And then when Meredith gets back from her honeymoon and reopens shop I'll grab myself an oil or two in larger bottles because these scents are just amazing.

That's all for now- again, you can feel free to ask any questions about any of the fragrances you saw here in the comments section- or check out her website at http://www.sweetanthem.com/perfume for descriptions and customer reviews. Thanks for reading!